The way it was
Yesterday morning I called the car service at 3:45am, they came at 4am and we arrived at the transition area by 4:35, five minutes after it opened. My foot felt a bit gimpy, I wish I understood the issue with it. I don’t think that it’s an injury, but I was/am feeling some discomfort on the top of the foot…again. E and I were in separate rows, since everything is organized by gender and age. She went to her corner and I went to mine, where I talked to the people and got some new helpful hints.
After being body marked with our respective age and race numbers, we headed up to swim start, approximately 1.5 miles from transition. There we got our timing chips, which strap to our ankles on Velcro.
We had brought our PAM cooking spray to spray on the wetsuits and our bodies to make it easier to get the wetsuit off. We put on the legs and then E said goodbye to find her age group, since she was scheduled to start 24 minutes before me. I went to my corral and listened to people’s advice for the swim. It was an in-water start and the main piece of advice was to hold on tight to the rope so you didn’t float away before the air horn sounded.
Then the horn sounded. The current was so strong that you could probably float the 1 mile downstream in 35-40 minutes, depending on your buoyancy. In earlier waves (I was in 16) I noticed a lot of people making a lot of progress doing elementary backstroke. I think that a lot of non-swimmers choose this triathlon because it’s known for its fast swim conditions. There were placards posted on the seawall…1200 meters to go…900…600…300. I always find that the final 300 meters go slowest. But I finished in 25 minutes, which was 5 minutes faster than before. Love that current.
One of the WORST things about this race is that you get out of the swim at 81st street and into triathlon at 72nd street, about a half a mile. Everyone looked funny, struggling out of the top of the wetsuit and running barefoot for a half-mile. It’s was a long and uncomfortable trot. I got to the transition, looked longingly at the PortaPotties [the line was too long], struggled out of the wetsuit, put on my helmet, gloves, and sunglasses and headed out for the bike…25 miles.
The first half of the bike ride sucked. It’s not an easy course under any circumstances and yesterday I could barely move; there was a 12MPH headwind and I felt like it was pushing me back down. I suspect that I did 11MPH for the first half of the ride [worst EVER] and close to 14 MPH for the second half when I had the tailwind. I was very glad when it ended. Time [2 hours] FEH!
I started out for the run fearing the worst. The run was the easiest part, probably because I spend a ton of time training all year. I was slow, but not hurting. As he passed me, some guy asked me to stop “weaving” so he could get around me. He put his hand on my back and the words bubbled up to curse him. Before I could spit them out, he passed and I saw that he was an amputee. I swallowed my annoyance. Right after that, I saw R, who was there to cheer me on. I gave me a huge lift to see her there. All through the course, women [strangers] would see me trotting along and cheer me on, “YOU GO GIRL! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE! I didn’t feel motivated to push myself because of the disappointing bike time, so I trotted and walked and walked and trotted. The Galloway method looks better and better to me every day. Run time: 80 minutes. They gave me a big, cold, wet towel to drape on my shoulders. And R was there to help me back to my bike and back to my neighborhood. It would have been a miserable day without her.
My mom was relieved. She told me last night that she didn’t think I’d be able to do it after the exhausting week we had. But I did do it. Right now, I feel like the past two years of triathlons haven’t been as fun as the first year (2004 Danskin). I need to decide whether I want to do it again—I would like to do a sprint distance in the Midwest, AHEM. But for this year, no más.
July 23, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Well - congrats on the triathalon, no matter how you felt about it. I think it’s amazing humans can do such things at all. I think you should be proud of yourself and take it easy. You did it!
July 23, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Good for you!! That is sooo awesome!
I have no fear that my cheering section will be out in full force for Iron Girl in August!
July 23, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Rest your weary bones. You deserve it!
July 23, 2007 at 4:29 pm
You are such a trooper! Congratulations on making the decision to do it, training training training, and then DOING IT. The whole process is hard, not just the end result so be proud of yourself! I, for one, am very proud of you.
July 23, 2007 at 4:36 pm
In response to your comment, I am only a champ with the mountain biking. I can’t road bike or swim or run. Just the one thing! That’s why triathletes get my full respect because I can’t imagine doing all three of those hard things at one time.
July 23, 2007 at 6:27 pm
You did way more than most of the million of people who live in New York. They were at Starbucks having lattes. Be proud of what you did! You’re a triple threat, baby!
July 23, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Yay again! I love reading about your races. And to do that well in the face of the kind of week you had is amazing. Although I have to admit, it intimidates me a bit when thinking about the Midwest tri (ahem). But I’m still thinking. Although what I should really be doing is running…Also, those headwinds totally suck on bikes. One of the hardest things about my bike route in the city was the lake, because there’s always a stiff breeze blowing from somewhere and it seems like it was always blowing in your face. If it happened to stay put, you always hope it’s in your face when you start, because otherwise it’s awfully hard getting home again. There was one particularly brutal ride I remember where it took me nearly twice as long to get home as it did to ride out, thanks solely to the wind.
July 24, 2007 at 2:58 pm
you’re a tri hero now. do you get a chip? is this #4? i’m impressed that people around you had useful things to say about the swim. i hadn’t even thought of what harri3t mentioned: how bad it would have been to have the wind in the opposite direction, to have to finish the bike ride against it.
gp raved about how much it helped him to use the galloway method (or at least the 5 min run 1 min walk part of it - i don’t know what else is involved). i’m not sure how much he’s continued to use it, but from such a pain-lover, it’s a big recommendation.